Public Disclosure (2024)

On June 21, 2024, Nordion evacuated their March Road facility in Kanata as part of a planned Emergency Response exercise with the Ottawa Fire Services teams. The ability to safely evacuate the occupants of any building is very important to mitigate the impact of an emergency. Nordion holds exercises involving practice evacuation on a regular basis as part of its Emergency Management Program to ensure appropriate preparedness for the unlikely event of an emergency at the Nordion site. This exercise was successfully completed at approximately 11 am and we thank those who participated.

As part of its oversight activities, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) conducts environmental assessments of licensee’s facilities under its Independent Environmental Monitoring Program. In 2023, CNSC staff collected testing samples around the Nordion facility. The CNSC concluded that Nordion’s environmental protection program was effective and that Nordion continued to protect people and the environment in the vicinity of our facility. The results can be found on the CNSC website at https://www.cnsc-ccsn.gc.ca/eng/resources/maps-of-nuclear-facilities/iemp/nordion/

Nordion is hosting the Ottawa Police Services (OPS) on May 20th at noon for a special OPS training exercise. This is part of our efforts to build and maintain a strong relationship with OPS. OPS will have emergency vehicles on site. These types of outreach events are important for both Nordion and Ottawa emergency services in order to improve response capabilities and ensure an integrated response in the unlikely event that there is an emergency at the Nordion site.

At approximately 1.57 pm on May 1, 2024, the Ottawa Fire Services (OFS) was dispatched to Nordion’s facility after receiving a call in error from Nordion’s third-party monitoring company.

This event did not trigger an actual fire alarm, there was no evacuation and the emergency response plan was not initiated.

Members of Ottawa Fire Department is on-site at Nordion for a planned meeting on April 12^th. There will be emergency vehicles on site during this visit.

This is part of their normal and routine community service and not in response to any incident or threat to Nordion. These visits allow the Ottawa emergency response teams to better understand Nordion’s operations and respond if ever needed.